Transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder is the second most common genitourinary malignancy in people in the United States. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is overexpressed in bladder cancer. COX-2 inhibitors have had antitumor activity against bladder cancer, but the mechanisms of action are unclear. Clinically relevant concentrations of COX-2 inhibitors fail to inhibit proliferation in standard in vitro assays. In pilot experiments, different culture conditions [standard monolayer, modified monolayer, soft agar, collagen, and poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)–coated plates] were assessed to determine conditions suitable for the study of COX inhibitor growth-inhibitory effects. This was followed by studies of the effects of clinically relevant concentrations of a selective COX-2 inhibitor (celecoxib) on urinary bladder cancer cell lines (HT1376, TCCSUP, and UMUC3). Celecoxib (≤5 μmol/L) inhibited proliferation of COX-2–expressing HT1376 cells in soft agar and modified monolayer cell culture conditions in a COX-2–dependent manner. COX-2 expression, however, did not always correlate with response to celecoxib. TCCSUP cells that express COX-2 were minimally affected by celecoxib, and UMUC3 cells that lack COX-2 expression were modestly inhibited by the drug. When UMUC3Cox-2/Tet cells overexpressing COX-2 under the control of tetracycline-inducible promoter were treated with celecoxib in modified monolayer cell culture, growth inhibition was found to be associated with changes in the expression of pRb. Not surprisingly, the proliferation of all cell lines was inhibited by excessively high concentrations of celecoxib. In conclusion, the modified culture conditions allowed detection of COX-2–dependent and COX-2–independent growth-inhibitory activity of celecoxib in urinary bladder cancer cells. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008;7(4):897–904]


ABSTRACT THE effects of deep tillage are believed to differ for conventional vs. conservation tillage in the sandy Ultisols of the southeastern Coastal Plains of the United States. To test this, cone indices were measured for a conventional tillage and a conservation tillage treatment before and after in-row subsoil-planting. In the first year of the study, the conservation tillage treatment had a significantly higher moisture content (15.1 vs 12.1% on a dry weight basis) and a mean soil strength that was 0.70 MPa less than the conventional treatment. In the second year, the conservation tillage treatment had a lower moisture content (13.2 vs. 14.9%) and a mean soil strength that was 0.29 MPa greater than the conventional treatment. However, after conventional treatment strengths were corrected for soil moisture content differences, the mean strengths were about the same. The differences in the distribution of the strengths favored the conservation tillage treatment which was evenly distributed while the conventional tillage treatment had areas of higher strength that could more easily inhibit root growth.


Severe sepsis is a leading cause of death in the developed world. There is limited clinical data whether medications such as statins, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) impact sepsis-related outcomes. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using Department of Veterans Affairs data of patients > 65 years hospitalized with severe sepsis. We propensity matched for the 3 medications simultaneously to examine the relationships of these medications on the outcomes of 30-day mortality and use of invasive mechanical ventilation. Of the 9,527 potentially eligible patients we matched 2,422 cases to 2,422 controls. Mean age was 74.2 years, and 99% were male. Of the matched cohort, 59% were in the ICU within 24 hours, 35% received invasive mechanical ventilation, and 30-day mortality was 40%. We found that prior outpatient use of ARBs was associated with decreased 30-day mortality (odds ratio 0.58, 95% confidence interval 0.37-0.91) and decreased use of mechanical ventilation (0.66, 0.45 - 0.96). However, for both statins and ACEIs we did not find significant differences in 30-day mortality (statins-0.91, 0.79-1.03; ACEI- 0.95 0.83-1.09) or mechanical ventilation (statins- 0.91, 0.78-1.07; ACEI- 0.99, 0.84-1.16). These findings suggest a beneficial association between use of ARBs and sepsis-related outcomes however, unlike prior studies, no association was seen with the use of statins or ACEIs. Additional research is needed to assess if these medications may be protective for patients hospitalized with sepsis.


Streptococcus mutans is a pre-dominant bacterial species found in oral biofilms and participates in the production of dental caries via the generation of organic acids. The production of these acids results from the fermentation of carbohydrates present in a sugar-laden diet. As the acidity of an oral biofilm decreases, the demineralisation of the enamel of a tooth increases; leading to the formation of dental caries. To detect and measure the pH change occurring following a sugar challenge, ratiometric, fluorescent, pH-sensitive nanosensors were incorporated into oral biofilms. Confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed that the addition of glucose (1 % w/v) to an S. mutans biofilm resulted in a gradual reduction in the fluorescence intensity ratio during a 30 min period. This reduction in the fluorescence intensity ratio indicated a reduction in pH of the biofilm over time as the glucose was being fermented, resulting in the production and secretion of acids into the extracellular matrix of the biofilm. Additionally, a reduction in pH was detected – using widefield microscopy – in starved, planktonic S. mutans when treated with glucose. Over the course of 30 min, the pH of the medium was reduced from pH 5.3 to pH 3.3 as the glucose was fermented by the bacteria. These findings will help us map pH changes in oral biofilms as we examine potential methods of preventing the acidification of oral biofilms and the eventual demineralisation of the enamel; leading to the reduction in dental caries and an improvement in the standard of living of those effected.


The control of the testing process and estimation of the resource required to perform testing is key to delivering a software product of target quality on budget. This thesis explores the use of testing to remove errors, the part that metrics and models play in this process, and considers an original method for improving the quality of a software product. The thesis investigates the possibility of using software metrics to estimate the testing resource required to deliver a product of target quality into deployment and also determine during the testing phases the correct point in time to proceed to the next testing phase in the life-cycle. Along with the metrics Clear ratio. Chum, Error rate halving. Severity shift, and faults per week, a new metric 'Earliest Visibility' is defined and used to control the testing process. EV is constructed upon the link between the point at which an error is made within development and subsequently found during testing. To increase the effectiveness of testing and reduce costs, whilst maintaining quality the model operates by each test phase being targeted at the errors linked to that test phase and the ability for each test phase to build upon the previous phase. EV also provides a measure of testing effectiveness and fault introduction rate by development phase. The resource estimation model is based on a gradual refinement of an estimate, which is updated following each development phase as more reliable data is available. Used in conjunction with the process control model, which will ensure the correct testing phase is in operation, the estimation model will have accurate data for each testing phase as input. The proposed model and metrics have been developed and tested on a large-scale (4 million LOC) industrial telecommunications product written in C and C++ running within a Unix environment. It should be possible to extend this work to suit other environments and other development life-cycles.


Space-time-modulated metasurfaces can manipulate electromagnetic waves in space and frequency domain simultaneously. In this paper, an analytical design of space-time-modulated metasurfaces with modulation elements composed of two paths, In-phase (I) and Quadrature (Q), is proposed. The model is derived analytically, the space/frequency domain manipulations are achieved by designing the dimension and time sequence of I and Q paths. In the specular reflection direction, an objective frequency shift of the reflected first order harmonic can be obtained. While, in other directions, the opposite first order harmonic can be easily controlled by changing the dimension of I/Q paths and the objective first order harmonic remains unchanged. Furthermore, with a small dimension of I/Q paths, the first order harmonic can be used for beam scanning by pre-designing the start time of the modulation element. To realize the space-time-modulated metasurface with the required periodically time-varying responses, 2-bit unit-cells loaded with dynamically switchable pin diodes are employed as I/Q modulation. Both analytical and numerical results demonstrate that space and frequency domain manipulations of the reflected fields by the first order harmonics can be simultaneously obtained. The proposed designs have potential applications in wireless communications, radar camouflaging, and cloaking.


Introduction: The study was conducted to determine the association of Helicobactor pylori with endoscopic and histological parameters of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken. A total of 79 patients were evaluated prospectively in the endoscopic unit of a gastroenterology department for symptoms compatible with GERD. In all cases, routine endoscopy and Los Angeles grading of GERD were performed. In each subject, biopsies were taken from 3 cm above the squamocolumnar junction and from the antrum and assessed histologically. Results: Majority of the patients presented with complaints of heartburn (84.8%) and regurgitation (75.9%). Nonerosive reflux disease was present in only five patients. Endoscopically, the remaining 74 cases were graded as follows: 25 had GERD A, 10 had GERD B, 35 had features of Barrett's esophagus, and 4 had miscellaneous findings. H. pylori positivity was present in 33.3% of patients with GERD A and 4.8% of those with GERD B. Majority of the histological parameters such as elongation of lamina propria papillae, intraepithelial inflammatory infiltrate, ballooning degeneration, lack of surface maturation, and dilatation and congestion of lamina propria capillaries did not show statistically significant association with H. pylori. The overall H. pylori prevalence was found to be 26.58% (21/79). Conclusion: On endoscopy, with the increased GERD severity, H. pylori incidence decreased. H. pylori was found to have no significant association with majority of the histological parameters.


For the elderly, housing choices are more complex than merely the choice of housing expenditure, dwelling size, and tenure. They also include the choice among alternative living arrangements such as living in one household with their adult children or sharing accommodations with other related or unrelated elderly. We first contrast living arrangements of elderly Americans with the population under age 65 and describe the changes from 1974 to 1983. We detect a growing discrepancy in household formation/dissolution patterns between the elderly and the younger population: after a steady decline in the 1970s, we observe a rapid increase in the rate of "doubled-up" young families in the beginning of the 1980s. No such development can be found among elderly Americans. Instead, the proportion of elderly living in- dependently steadily increases from 1974 to 1983. To explain this discrepancy, we estimate a multinomial choice model among living independently and six categories of alternative living arrangements. The main finding is the predominance of demographic determinants as opposed to economic variables. The difference in income growth between the young and the elderly -- real income declined for the young but increased for the elderly -- can explain only part of the discrepancy in household dissolution decisions. The remaining discrepancy must be attributed to inertia and low mobility rates.


Seventeen representative strains of Rhodococcus and related taxa were analyzed for antigenic relationships by rocket immunoelectrophoresis. A good correlation was found between data from this form of analysis and previously reported numerical phenetic and deoxyribonucleic acid reassociation data. Rhodococcus ruber and Rhodococcus erythropolis strains formed distinct clusters in a dendrogram produced by average linkage analyses for dissimilarity matrices. Rhodococcus equi, Nocardia asteroides, and an unidentified Rhodococcus strain formed single-member clusters, whereas Rhodococcus coprophilus was found to be heterogeneous. In contrast, R. erythropolis and R. ruber were found to be distinct species. The discrepancies between deoxyribonucleic acid pairing and rocket immunoelectrophoresis results can be explained on the basis of suboptimal antigen or antiserum preparations.


Viruses are the smallest and simplest pathogens, necessarily intracellular, that use the metabolic apparatus of the host cell to multiply. To enter into invaded cells, they use pre-existing host structures, so viruses have tropism for those systems that possess these structures, viral infections being generally confined to those tissues and organs. Viral infections have different symptoms; some infections are asymptomatic, others can be severe, even fatal. Viral infections can develop chronically or acutely. When viruses are highly contagious and when new viruses appear, which the host population has not met and for which it has no immunity, epidemics and pandemics can occur. Some viruses are involved in the genesis of cancer. Viruses are classified primarily by the nucleic acid they contain, in DNA viruses and RNA viruses. Antiviral agents have different mechanisms of action, interfering different life cycle stages of different viruses. Pharmacotherapeutic classification of antiviral drugs is made according to the viral infections in which they are active. Antiviral medication is most often used as curative treatment, but some antiviral drugs can also be used prophylactically. Vaccination is the prophylactic method of active immunization, but unfortunately for many viruses there is no vaccine.


The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be only the third time the Olympic Summer Games have been held outside the West and its former colonies, after Tokyo 1964 and Seoul 1988. If one adds the 1972 Sapporo and 1998 Nagano Winter Games, these will be the fifth Olympic Games outside the West. China in 2008 is arguably the least Westernized nation yet to host the Olympic Games. It will also be the first East Asian country to hold the Games that is not host to U.S. military bases. When measured by the numbers of Westerners who will be in China, it will be the greatest-ever meeting of East and West in peacetime. The Beijing Olympics mark the moment when the most populous nation in the world, and the one that is located farthest from the political centres of the West both geographically and culturally, becomes incorporated into the global system more than ever before in human history. As we saw from the protests surrounding the international torch relay and the ultra-nationalist response among some segments of Chinese society, the process of China's incorporation has not been smooth. It seems apparent there is a deep-seated mistrust and fear of China in the West, a fear of an unknown "Other." Actually China is not that unknown anymore after 160 years of close interaction with the West. This interaction began on a large scale with the Opium Wars of the 1840s, and continued into the semi-colonial period when the Western powers forced China to open ports for trade. Missionaries flocked to China in large numbers, finding a meaning in their lives that was lacking in their home countries. They introduced Olympic sports into China along the way. Western women found a greater freedom in China than they had back home, and, mistakenly thinking that male-female equality was the way of the West, Chinese reformers took up the cause of physical education for women. One of its products was the fact that in 2004, China came second to the U.S. in the gold medal count largely due to the fact that women won 59% of its gold medals, as compared to 33% for the U.S. and 41% for Russia in third. In the World War II period China was a base for British and US operations against Japan. During that period the U.S. led an attempt to form a coalition government of the Communist, Nationalist, and other political parties. This history is just now being rewritten in China after decades of the Communist Party's claiming almost total responsibility for the victory over Japan. A relatively brief period of isolation occurred in the 1950s through the late 1970s due to the West's embargoes against the Communist government, but for the last 30 years the linkages between China West have rapidly expanded. China should no longer be strange to us, but it still is. This strangeness has been manufactured, and we as academics have played a key role in manufacturing it. The People without Sport History In his anthropological classic, Europe and the People without History, Eric Wolf observed that the Western intellectual tradition tended to view Europeans--the "people with history"--as the driving force of historical change, and "primitive" societies as pristine, unchanging survivals from the past--the "people without history." He argued that if we looked more carefully at the interconnections between the world's peoples, then we would understand that "The global processes set in motion by European expansion constitute their history as well." (1) His book was an ambitious attempt to write the history of the interconnectedness of the world since 1400 by focusing on trade. Olympic history could very well be a history of the interconnection of the world through sport, but the history of the interconnection between China and the West through sport is nearly nonexistent. China was dismissed from the history of sport in Western scholarship of the nineteenth century, with the result that when it reentered the international sportsworld in the 1980s, it was one of the "people without sport history. …


Organizing ideas often constitutes a problem for translators, particularly student translators, because translation is a process of reproducing a text in another different language. As a matter of fact, a good target text (TT) should contain well-organized clauses showing how the ideas are related one another. Such good ideas organization can be reflected through their thematic progression, i.e. the progression from theme to rheme, or vice versa. Every clause, according its textual metafunction, contains a message composed of theme, the starting point of the message, and rheme, the rest of the message. This article is aimed at finding out the thematic progression of the TT written by the student translators. This is a descriptive qualitative study taking 15 (fifteen) student translators as the participants who were asked to translate a news item text from English into Bahasa Indonesia. The data were collected using Translog and were analyzed using a content analysis method. Based on the results of the data analysis, it was found that: (i) hypertheme progression (theme progression with derived themes) was dominantly used by the student translators in their TT; and (ii) ideas organization was still a problem in the student translators' TT. The finding of this study confirms the important role of thematic progression as the tool assisting in producing a well-organized text.


This paper aims to raise issues about places, roles, dynamism and, mainly, representations of teachers engaged in Distance Education. It has been noted that the source visions for these representations are overly related to misconceptions about the images of teaching disseminated by the modernist practices in schools over the years. Through the analysis of pictures collected on the web, we discussed these visions from our own experience as teachers in Virtual Learning Environments.


Several federal district courts have enacted rules that seek to preempt attorneys from interfering with the discovery process through improper "witness-coaching" by prohibiting an attorney from engaging in off-the-record consultation with his or her client-witness during the course of a deposition. Some argue that such rules intrude into the attorney-client relationship and relegate the role of the attorney to that of a "potted plant" for the sake of curbing the potential for discovery abuse. This article analyzes the varying formulations of the no-consultation rule and discusses how this seemingly innocuous rule is remarkable in two main respects. First, the rule represents much of what critics of local rulemaking have decried. Second, the no-consultation rule represents the nadir of attempts to regulate abusive attorney conduct by assuming that attorneys will act unethically if given the opportunity. Finally, this article discusses the proposition that where the district courts feel compelled to pursue this path, the best approach is the least intrusive one. The goals of the no-consultation rule can be accomplished simply by prohibiting attorney-client consultations while a question is pending. This approach prevents direct coaching of a witness as to a pending question, but allows for the legitimate uses of off-the-record conferences. Therefore, the functions of an attorney serving a client and aiding the tribunal are not unnecessarily supplanted.


Photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterility (PSGMS) rice has a number of desirable characteristics for hybrid rice production. In this study, we conducted a molecular marker-based mapping and genetic analysis of PSGMS genes using two crosses involving the original mutant Nongken 58S as the PSGMS parent. The genomic locations of the PSGMS loci were determined following the bulked extreme and recessive class approach, in which the regions containing the PSGMS loci were identified by assaying the bulks of extreme phenotypes and the distances between the PSGMS loci and molecular markers were calculated from the highly sterile plants of the F 2 populations. Two PSGMS loci, located on chromosomes 7 and 12, respectively, were identified in both crosses. The locus on chromosome 7 was the same as pms1, identified previously in a cross between an indica PSGMS line and an indica cultivar. The one on chromosome 12 was a new locus that we designated as pms3. Hoth loci had major effects on fertility and acted like a pair of classical duplicated genes in controlling male sterility. Comparison of the present finding with previous results indicated a complex genetic basis of PSGMS. The implications of such genetic complexity in breeding for PSGMS lines are also discussed.


I will discuss the development of inflationary theory and its present status, including recent progress in describing de Sitter space and inflationary universe in string theory.


The Upper Miocene Mustafapas-a member of the Ürgüp Formation in the Cappadocia region consists predominantly of mudstones, sandstone, and conglomerate lenses with ignimbrite and basalt intercalations. The mudstones are an important source of raw materials for the ceramics industry in Turkey. A detailed mineralogical, geochemical, and genesis study of these materials has not been performed previously and the present study aims to fill that gap. The characteristics of mudstones of the Mustafapas-a member were examined using X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and chemical analyses. Weathering products of ophiolitic and pyroclastic rocks were transported into the tectonically subsided zone where they accumulated as fluvial and lacustrine deposits.Weathering in the mudstones is evidenced by smectite flakes associated with relict pyroxene, rod-like amphibole, feldspar, and volcanic glass. The chemical composition of mudstones and their distribution suggest that the depositional basin was supplied with ophiolitic material in the south and ignimbrite material in the north. This interpretation is based on an increase in the quantity of feldspar and opal-A and a decrease in the Fe2O3+MgO/Al2O3+SiO2 ratio from south to north in the study area. The northward increases in Light Rare Earth Elements/Heavy Rare Earth Elements, La/Yb, Zr/Ni and Zr/Co ratios and Nb, Ba, Rb, Sr, and Eu in the mudstones of the Mustafapas-a member with positive Eu anomalies suggest that the Fe, Mg, Al, and Si required to form smectite were supplied mainly through the decomposition of amphiboles, pyroxenes, feldspars, and volcanic glass during weathering processes. After the deposition of mudstones, relative increases in evaporation-controlled Ca, K, and Al in pore water favored the partial dissolution of Ca-bearing minerals and smectite flakes and in situ precipitation of calcite and traces of illite fibers under alkaline micro-environmental conditions during early diagenesis.


Next generation wireless communications are expected to rely on integrated networks consisting of multiple wireless technologies. Heterogeneous networks based on Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) and Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs) can combine their respective advantages on coverage and data rates, offering a high Quality of Service (QoS) to mobile users. In such environment, multi-interface terminals should seamlessly switch from one network to another in order to obtain improved performance or at least to maintain a continuous wireless connection. Therefore, network selection algorithm is important in providing better performance to the multi-interface terminals in the integrated networks. In this paper, we propose a cost-based vertical handover decision algorithm that triggers the Vertical Handover (VHO) based on a cost function for WWAN/WLAN integrated networks. For the cost function, we focus on developing an analytical model of the expected cost of WLAN for the mobile users that enter the double-coverage area while having a connection in the WWAN. Our simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves better performance in terms of power consumption and throughput than typical approach where WLANs are always preferred whenever the WLAN access is available.


Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular pathogens that can exhibit a broad host range in infection tropism despite maintaining near genomic identity. Here, we have investigated the molecular basis for this unique host-pathogen relationship. We show that human and murine chlamydial infection tropism is linked to unique host and pathogen genes that have coevolved in response to host immunity. This intimate host-pathogen niche revolves around a restricted repertoire of host species-specific IFN-γ-mediated effector responses and chlamydial virulence factors capable of inhibiting these effector mechanisms. In human epithelial cells, IFN-γ induces indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase expression that inhibits chlamydial growth by depleting host tryptophan pools. Human chlamydial strains, but not the mouse strain, avoid this response by the production of tryptophan synthase that rescues them from tryptophan starvation. Conversely, in murine epithelial cells IFN-γ induces expression of p47 GTPases, but not indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. One of these p47 GTPases (Iigp1) was shown by small interfering RNA silencing experiments to specifically inhibit human strains, but not the mouse strain. Like human strains and their host cells, the murine strain has coevolved with its murine host by producing a large toxin possessing YopT homology, possibly to circumvent host GTPases. Collectively, our findings show chlamydial host infection tropism is determined by IFN-γ-mediated immunity.


The paper reviews the theoretical foundations of the use of forward interest rates to infer expected future rates of interest, inflation, currency depreciation and inflation differentials. Forward rates are related to these expected future variables via combinations of term, inflation and foreign exchange risk premia. A unified derivation, discussion and comparison of these premia is provided under both general and specific assumptions, as well as some comments on empirical estimation.


A method of measuring refractive indices of gases in the vacuum ultraviolet using the electron beam from a 4.5-MeV microtron to produce Cerenkov radiation in the gases is described. In this method the threshold pressures for Cerenkov radiation in the ultraviolet and visible regions are compared for electrons of the same velocity. The ultraviolet detectors used in the present experiment are photomultipliers with gold photocathodes and windows of: (a) fused silica, and (b) "Spectrosil" to give results at about 1900 A and a nitric oxide ionization chamber with a lithium fluoride window for results at about 1200 A.Preliminary results are quoted for the refractive indices of argon and nitrogen at the above wavelengths. The calculation of dispersion formulas has been deferred until further measurements have been made.


Epilepsy is a highly prevalent and drug-refractory neurological disorder characterized by spontaneous recurrent seizures. Estrogen is identified to be proconvulsant and lowers the seizure threshold of female epilepsy. Estrogen receptor β (ERβ) has been proposed to mediate neuroprotection in epilepsy, although the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Rationale: In this study, we investigated the role of ERβ in the epileptogenesis of female temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Methods: Immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, western blots, Golgi staining, 1H MRS and whole-cell patch-clamp were used to evaluate ERβ expression, pathological changes, and synaptic excitation /inhibition (E/I) balance in female TLE patients and ovariectomized (OVX) chronic epileptic mice. Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings were recorded to evaluate the epileptic susceptibility in OVX WT and ERβ-/- mice. And high-throughput RNA-sequence was performed to identify differential expression genes (DEGs) which can elucidate the potential mechanism of ERβ regulating the seizure susceptibility. Results: ERβ expression was decreased in the brains of female TLE patients and OVX chronic epileptic mice. ERβ deletion enhanced seizure susceptibility and exacerbated the imbalance of synaptic E/I in hippocampal CA1 area of OVX epileptic mice. In line with these observations, RNA-sequence data further identified glutamine ligase (GLUL) as the target of ERβ involved in regulating synaptic E/I in CA1. Furthermore, ERβ agonist WAY-200070 markedly suppressed epileptic phenotypes and normalized GLUL expression in CA1 region of kainic acid (KA) induced OVX chronic epileptic model. Conclusions: Our data provide novel insight into the pathogenesis of female TLE, and indicate ERβ provides a new therapeutic strategy for female TLE patients.


This paper studies the causal effect of English proficiency on residential location outcomes and the socioeconomic class of immigrants in England and Wales, exploiting a natural experiment. Based on the phenomenon that young children learn a new language more easily than older children, we construct an instrument for English proficiency using age at arrival in the United Kingdom. Taking advantage of a unique dataset, we measure the extent of residential segregation along different dimensions, and find that poor English skills lead immigrants to live in areas with a high concentration of people who speak their same native language, but not necessarily in areas with a high concentration of people of their same ethnicity or country of birth. This finding could suggest that, for immigrants with poor English proficiency, what matters for their residential location decision is language spoken by residents, as opposed to ethnicity or country of birth. We also find that language skills have an impact on the occupation-based socioeconomic class of immigrants: Poor English skills reduce the likelihood of being in the occupation-based class 'higher managerial and professional' and increase that of being in the class 'self-employment'.


The susceptibility of spores of the red alga Iridaea cordata and the brown algae Adenocystis utricularis and Himantothallus grandifolius to UV (UVR) and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) was tested in field-experiments on King George Island. Spores were exposed to i) natural radiation, ii) radiation depleted of UVBR and iii) radiation depleted of UVAR and UVBR, in different water depths (1, 2, 4 and 8m). Concomitantly, spores were exposed in the laboratory for different times to artificial radiation (1, 2, 4 and 8h). Germination rates were determined after laboratory post-culture under dim white light. Germination of the intertidal species A. utricularis was not affected by depth, exposure time or radiation treatment, while germination of the other two subtidal species showed significant differences between different depth and/or radiation regimes. Spores from I. cordata and H. grandifolius were inhibited by high PAR at 1 m and 1-2 m water depth, respectively, but not in deeper waters. Spores of the two subtidal species were, in contrast to A. utricularis spores from the intertidal, affected not only by UVR but also by high PAR. In the laboratory approach under low PAR, the subtidal species were only affected by UVR under short term exposure (1-2h). Our results show that already algal spores, being the most sensitive part in the life-cycle of macroalgae, show species-specific adaptations. Not only UVR but also the high PAR fluxes penetrating into the water column in the field are important factors determining the upper distribution limit of Antarctic macroalgae.


In The Secret Garden (1911), Frances Hodgson Burnett presented Christian Science as an alternative to the popular rest cure invented by Philadelphia neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell. Burnett, who underwent several unsuccessful rest cures for her depression, eventually turned to Christian Science, aspects of which surface in The Secret Garden. The novel's child protagonist, Mary Lennox, stands in for charismatic leader Mary Baker Eddy. Mary rehabilitates her reclusive uncle and her cousin Colin, a bedridden hysteric. By showing a young female healer curing hysterical males, Burnett inverted the gender politics of the rest cure and contradicted its key principles.


Numerical atom-centered basis sets (orbitals) (NAO) are known for their compactness and rapid convergence in the Hartree–Fock and density-functional theory (DFT) molecular electronic-structure calculations. To date, not much is known about the performance of the numerical sets against the well-studied Gaussian-type bases in correlated calculations. In this study, one instance of NAO [Blum et al., The Fritz Haber Institute ab initio Molecular Simulations Package (FHI-aims), 2009] was thoroughly examined in comparison to the correlation-consistent basis sets in the ground-state correlated calculations on the hydrogen-bonded water and dispersion-dominated methane dimers. It was shown that these NAO demonstrate improved, comparing to the unaugmented correlation-consistent based, convergence of interaction energies in correlated calculations. However, the present version of NAO constructed in the DFT calculations on covalently-bound diatomics exhibits enormous basis-set superposition error (BSSE)—even with the largest bases. Moreover, these basis sets are essentially unable to capture diffuse character of the wave function, necessary for example, for the complete convergence of correlated interaction energies of the weakly-bound complexes. The problem is usually treated by addition of the external Gaussian diffuse functions to the NAO part, what indeed allows to obtain accurate results. However, the operation increases BSSE with the resulting hybrid basis sets even further and breaks down the initial concept of NAO (i.e., improved compactness) due to the significant increase in their size. These findings clearly point at the need in the alternative strategies for the construction of sufficiently-delocalized and BSSE-balanced purely-numerical bases adapted for correlated calculations, possible ones were outlined here. For comparison with the considered NAOs, a complementary study on the convergence properties of the correlation-consistent basis sets, with a special emphasis on BSSE, was also performed. Some of its conclusions may represent independent interest. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The evaluation of software architectures is crucial to ensure that the design of software systems meets the requirements. We present a generic methodical framework that enables the evaluation of component-based software architectures. It allows to determine system characteristics on the basis of the characteristics of its constituent components. Basic prerequisites are discussed and an overview of different architectural views is given, which can be utilised for the evaluation process. On this basis, we outline the general process of evaluating software architectures and provide a taxonomy of existing evaluation methods. To illustrate the evaluation of software architectures in practice, we present some of the methods in detail.


Aim: The aetiology of deep vein thrombosis differs among populations throughout the world. This study examines the aetiology of deep vein thrombosis in Turkish patients. Materials and Methods: Our study involved the treatment of 63 patients, including follow-up in our outpatient department, between November 2006 and December 2007. There were 29 female and 34 male patients with a mean age of 49.35 + 14.19 (range 25 - 85 years). Deep vein thrombosis was identified using a Doppler-/ duplex sonogram. A small pulmonary embolism was present in 5 patients. Results: Follow-up was carried out in 58 patients (92.06%). The causes of deep vein thrombosis were detectable in 43 patients (68.25%) by anamnesis and physical examination. Immobilization was present in 33 patients (52.38%). A thrombophilia test was carried out in 29 patients. In 20 patients (31.74%) with the first manifestation of deep vein thrombosis, no cause for deep vein thrombosis could be found in the anamnesis. A thrombophilia test was carried out through analysis of Protein C, Protein S, APCR (Activated Protein C Resistance), and Factor V Leiden in 12 (60%) of these 20 patients. In 11 (91.66%) of these 12 patients, thrombophilia was positive. Conclusions: The main causes of deep vein thrombosis in the Turkish population were immobilization (52.38%) and thrombophilia (51.72%). The incidence of both causes is approximately equal. In the healthy Turkish population with the first manifestation of deep vein thrombosis, thrombophilia can be positive in 91.66% of patients.


Influenza virus is a serious health concern. β-glucans derived from plants, bacteria, and fungi have been shown to potentiate immune system responses including those elicited by vaccination. However, in these studies β-glucan was administered as an adjuvant in the vaccine preparation. We hypothesized that addition of a commercially available whole glucan particle supplement to the diet would improve immune response to primary and secondary influenza vaccination in mice. β-glucan was added to pelleted diet and fed to mice at concentrations designed to deliver 0 (control), 1.8 or 90 mg·kg−1·day−1 to each mouse. Influenza vaccine was given intramuscularly in the left hindlimb and primary and secondary responses were assessed. Supplementation with β-glucan was not effective in boosting immune responses to the vaccine, either in the primary or secondary vaccination experiments. Surprisingly, addition of particulate β-glucan to the vaccine itself also failed to elicit a greater antibody response. These observations suggest that this particular form of β-glucan is ineffective in boosting immune response to intramuscular influenza vaccination. Further study is warranted to determine if the use of different mouse models, different vaccine delivery systems, or β-glucans purified from different strains of bacteria, fungi, or plants could improve outcomes using this or similar protocols.


Abstract Stratigraphic rule-based modeling methods approximate sedimentary dynamics to generate numerical descriptions of reservoir architecture and the spatial distribution of petrophysical properties. A few intuitive rules included in a reservoir model construction workflow are shown to render realistic reservoir heterogeneity, continuity, and spatial organization to petrophysical property distributions that are difficult to obtain using conventional reservoir modeling methods. These rules may be inferred from mature reservoirs, surface and subsurface datasets, and process-based models. Examples include confinement, meander, compensation, and healing rules. By incorporating stratigraphic rules that relate to the underlying geological processes in temporal sequence, rule-based modeling methods offer more realistic representation of inferred reservoir heterogeneity beyond conventional geostatistical reservoir modeling approaches. These include variogram-based, multiple point-based and object-based approaches that rely on a limited set of spatial statistics to describe the products of geological processes. Moreover, since these methods operate within a geostatistical framework, uncertainty can be explored by varying geologically meaningful parameters over multiple scenarios and realizations whilst maintaining consistency with input data constraints and applied to reservoir modeling studies within standard workflows. Rule-based modeling methods enable a variety of applications, including use: directly as reservoir models, as a source of reservoir model input statistics such as variograms and training images, and as a numerical analog laboratory to explore relationships between data, model choices and forecasts. Challenges remain, such as reliability of emergent features, alignment to grid framework, and feasibility for broad application. Despite challenges, rule-based methods can offer uplift when the natural facies continuity patterns and their corresponding petrophysical properties are critical to support decisions in reservoir modeling projects.


Vasilij Subbotin's We Stormed the Reichstag is a typical specimen of the wave of non-fiction prose about World War II which sprang up in the wake of the 20th Congress. The search for the unjustly forgotten war hero, one of the major themes of this kind of literature, is represented here by the story of Pëtr Pjatnickij, a soldier who fell on the steps of the Reichstag entrance with a red flag in his hand and was then forgotten.
If, hypothetically, this story was false, it would echo the (probably false) story of the 28 'panfilovcy' who purportedly fell at Dubosekovo during the battle for Moscow. In that case, Subbotin's text would embody a characteristically literary device: giving a name to an anonymous character, the anonymous figure, for example, carrying the flag in Vladimir Bogatkin's well-known painting, as a way to give life and credibility to the image. The Dubosekovo story, as developed by journalist Aleksandr Krivickij, appears to employ the same mechanism for achieving credibility. In this case the operation was twofold: Krivickij gave his heroes first a number, and only later names. The second move was the most hazardous. A story that pretends to be true must be verifiable in real life; this is where Krivickij failed and where Subbotin may have succeeded.
Stalinist culture fundamentally refused to separate fact from fiction. The non-fiction literature from the Thaw is exactly the opposite: an attempt at reinstating the separation.


Traditional acupuncture therapy involves inserting needles at acupuncture points across the body and twisting them, which winds soft tissues around the acupuncture needle. In order to better understand this phenomenon Julias et al [1, 2] conducted in vitro acupuncture needling on collagen gels as a soft tissue analog. Using polarized light microscopy (PLM) (Fig. 1) they observed changes in collagen alignment and measured the torque developed on the needle during twisting. While these results are insightful, what remains unknown are the forces transmitted to the tissue surrounding the acupuncture point via the needle. Computational modeling allows us to calculate these forces, which could never be measured experimentally.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Background Patient education is a key determinant of clinical outcomes in diabetes care. Concise and accurate descriptions of diabetes related complications that could be easily understood by patients are essential to successful patient education. Furthermore, descriptions could be used in utility/preference assessments to obtain important data for pharmacoeconomic research. Purpose To develop descriptions of common diabetes related complications that patients with diabetes in Taiwan could understand and apply. Material and methods This was a qualitative study that included interviews with diabetes health professionals and patient focus groups. 11 diabetes related complications were selected based on a literature review of recent pharmacoeconomic studies of oral diabetic agents. A description for each complication was drafted based on information collected from medical books, websites and literature searches. To then improve upon these descriptions, 2 physicians and 5 diabetes educators were interviewed individually. Each of the 7 health professionals had more than 12 years of experience in diabetes care. In addition, two focus group interviews involving a total of 8 patients with diabetes were conducted; each patient had actually experienced at least 1 of the 11 complications examined. Results Our initial descriptions consisted of information such as levels of mobility, pain, emotions, treatments needed and usual activities affected. Modifications were made after the interviews; for example, health professionals corrected the follow-up intervals from 6 months or annually to 3 months based on actual practice in Taiwan. In addition, it was found that diabetes educators provided more comments on emotional aspects (eg, fear and anxiety) of the complications whereas the physicians focused more on the symptoms and discomfort. During the focus group interviews, patients shared their personal experiences and helped identify difficult medical terms or statements that could be modified to make the descriptions more comprehensible to the general public. The final descriptions contained 4–8 sentences for each complication. Conclusion In this study, we developed descriptions of 11 diabetes related complications by patient and health professional interviews. These descriptions could be useful for diabetes patient education and utility/preference measurement. References and/or acknowledgements This study was sponsored by the Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital (SKH-8302-105-NDR04) and AstraZeneca Taiwan Ltd (A-104-062). Conflict of interest: Corporate sponsored research or other substantive relationships: This study was sponsored by the Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital (SKH-8302-105-NDR04) and AstraZeneca Taiwan Ltd (A-104-062).


Iron enzymes play a key role in many biological processes involving oxygen, from the biosynthesis of DNA to the conversion of electrochemical to chemical energy. In her Perspective,
 Kovacs
 highlights two reports that shed light on some of the intermediates that may be involved in reactions promoted by nonheme iron enzymes.
 Rohde
 et al. study a chemical analog system, while
 Karlsson
 et al. investigate the enzyme naphthalene dioxygenase with x-ray crystallography. By catching some of the fleeting intermediates, the two studies help to understand the enzymatic mechanism of this important group of proteins.


Are growth centers used as alternative institutions to traditional mental health facilities? Survey methods compared growth centers (N=426) and National Training Laboratories (N=108) participants with clinic patients (N=89). Symptoms, life stress, motivations for participation, process expectations, and various attitudes toward authority, time, and help were assessed prior to participation. Comparisons on degree of psychological distress and avowed motivation indicated that most who attend such activities do so for "psychotherapeutic purposes." Growth centers were found not to be an alternative to traditional psychotherapy, but rather an addition. Eighty percent of the growth center sample had previous or current psychotherapeutic experience. Of the people studied, most go to both rather than to one or the other, and from the perspective of the participants, the institutions do not differ greatly in what they offer, how long the process will take, or what goals will be met.


Abstract Haemostasis is an excellently orchestrated process; however, thrombosis or excessive bleeding can result in a breakdown of this subtly regulated mechanism. Anticoagulants prevent the formation of thrombi by blocking the coagulation cascade. Surgical interventions in anticoagulated patients carry a risk of periprocedural bleeding. Over the last decade, new agents – direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) – were introduced into clinical practice to overcome the drawbacks of classic agents used for the prevention of thrombotic events. The most remarkable difference in comparison with traditional anticoagulants is the elimination of the need for monitoring. The article covers periprocedural management in DOAC-treated patients undergoing oral surgery procedures. Direct oral anticoagulants are characterized, paying attention to pharmacokinetic properties important for oral surgeons. Bleeding risk related to oral and dental implant surgery procedures are presented, followed by considerations crucial for the evaluation of patient-related bleeding factors. Aspects of surgical planning are discussed. Adequate measures and aids helpful in oral surgery interventions together with post-operative care are also summarized.


Abstract Students often struggle with the concept of dependence of events or random variables. We present a simple coin flipping game that yields surprising results due to the dependencies within the game. The game is simple enough for young children to understand and play, yet complex enough to yield results that are counterintuitive to even most graduate students. We discuss how to implement the game in a classroom, suggest two problems from the game for students to solve, and present several solutions to the problems.


Bryophyllum pinnatum is an important enthnomedicinal plant. The study assessed the effect of crude aqueous leaves extract of Bryophyllum pinnatum (CALEBP) on fasting plasma glucose (FPG), antioxidant status, lipid profile, liver and renal function indices in albino rats. The rats were housed under standard laboratory conditions (12h light: 12h dark photoperiod), 23± 2 ºC and were given rat pellets and tap water ad libitum. Twenty four rats weighing 190-232g were randomized into four groups (A-D) of six rats each. Group A (control) received normal feed and water only. Groups B, C and D received orally 180, 360 and 540 mg/kg body weight respectively of CALEBP for 28 days. Serum aminotransferases, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), superoxide dismutase, catalase, FPG, lipid profile, urea, creatinine, bilirubin, proteins, malondialdehyde, glutathione (GSH) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and electrolytes were assessed by standard methods. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Groups C and D had significantly lower FPG (p = 0.030; p = 0.01) and higher ALP (p = 0.01; p = 0.001) compared to the controls. Group D had significantly lower creatinine (p = 0.03) and K+ (p = 0.02) compared to control. Group B, C and D had significantly lower GSH (p = 0.020, p = 0.000 and p = 0.000) while group B had significantly higher TAC (p = 0.04) compared to the controls. Dosage of extracts correlated positively with ALP (r = 0.705, p = 0.000) and negatively with FPG (r = -0.603, p = 0.002), K+ (r = -0.563, p = 0.004), creatinine (r = -0.464, p = 0.022) and GSH (r = -0.786, p = 0.000). Bryophyllum pinnatum aqueous leaves extract could lower blood glucose, potassium and creatinine  levels and may increase ALP activity and GSH depletion in high doses.
Keywords: Bryophyllum pinnatum, aqueous leaf extract, dosage, effect assessment, Albino rats


: In the forelimb area of the motor cortex after microiontophoretic injection of acetylcholine a group of nervous cells revealed more rapid, more stable and more effective reactions to afferent stimuli. The interrelation of impulsive activity of some of these neurons and electromyographic activity of forelimb muscles has given a possibility to propose that acetylcholine mobilizes the motor cortex for motor function regulations. The only result of noradrenaline application to motor cortex neurons was the prolongation of their responses to specific afferent stimulation.


This paper presents estimates of the current and potential impact of airbags, electronic stability control, and autonomous emergency braking on fatalities in light vehicle crashes. This analysis draws on a number of sources to provide estimates and projections of the proportion of the light vehicle fleet equipped with these technologies. It combines these with estimates of the impact of each technology to provide estimates and projections of the impact on fatalities. It is estimated that frontal airbags have reduced light vehicle fatalities by 13%, side airbags by 4%, and electronic stability control by 6% to 2014. It is also predicted that the impacts of side airbags and electronic stability control will increase significantly as newer vehicles filter through the fleet, and that autonomous emergency braking will begin to lead to significant fatality reductions. Combined, these technologies are predicted to reduce fatalities a further 30% by 2033. This paper draws on the underlying research in BITRE Information Sheet 68 and Report 140 and provides a more in-depth description of the data and research methodology. The paper will be of relevance to those engaged with road safety policy, and to other researchers.


Abstract : The limited success of exact algorithms for solving integer programming problems has encouraged the development of heuristic procedures for efficiently obtaining solutions that are at least close to optimal. This document presents three heuristic procedures for 0-1 integer programming problems having only inequality constraints. These procedures are based on Hillier's previous heuristic procedures for general integer linear programming. All three were successfully run on problems with up to 500 variables with only modest execution times. The quality of the solutions for these problems were, in general, very good and often were optimal. When the best of the solutions obtained by the three procedures was taken, the final solution was optimal for 24 of 45 randomly generated problems. These procedures can be used for problems that are too large to be computationally feasible for exact algorithms. In addition, they can be useful for smaller problems by quickly providing an advanced starting solution for an exact algorithm.


Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has become the standard of care for patients with medically inoperable early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A paucity of published data exists regarding the safety of SBRT use in patients with prior pneumonectomy. This report describes 2 patients with NSCLC and prior pneumonectomy who were treated with lung SBRT and experienced a favorable treatment response with no major adverse treatment effects. The data presented herein are promising and provide early evidence that lung SBRT is a safe and feasible option in this subset of patients.


Freeze drying process was applied to habanero pepper and modified, in order to reduce energy expenditure on frozen and dehydration techniques. Six alkaline solutions, olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, grape oil, sesame oil and safflower oil, were used to reduce time on vacuum chamber. Also, frozen step was modified by using dry ice (CO2) obtaining 43% of energy saving. The final product had high quality, moisture within 3% to 7% range, low microorganisms number, without organoleptic attributes damage and having all the characteristics of a fresh product by rehydrating. Dried sample was rehydrated by immersion in water at 40 °C for 5 min, obtaining 75% of initial humidity.Markedchanges on rehydrated final product was not perceived. The most effective oil to reduce the moisture was safflower followed by coconut and sesame, whilst the least effective were olive, followed by avocado and grape oils.


Nyabarongo River system is an ecosystem that provides goods and services to the Rwandese communities; this river serves as a tributary of the Nile River, an international resource. However, its integrity has been compromised due to increasing pressure for expansion of agricultural land. Against the aforementioned background, the present study was undertaken to assess farmers' maximum Willingness To Pay (WTP) for protection of Nyabarongo River system. Further, the study assessed the potential influence of different factors on the WTP estimates. A sample of 359 households from four Districts in the catchment area was randomly selected and interviewed through household survey questionnaires. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was applied to estimate the amount of money farmers are willing to pay while the influence of different factors was assessed using the Ordinary Least Squares regression method. Results showed that the mean household's maximum WTP for the protection of Nyabarongo River system was 486.4 Rwandan francs (Rwf) per household per month over the proposed five years (USD$1 = 607 Rwf). The main factors that were found to have significant statistical influence on the WTP are household income, education of the household head, respondent's perception of the current quality of water in Nyabarongo River, access to tap water, household size, extension contacts, initial bid amount and knowledge of individual responsibility in wetland protection. Based on these findings, it may be concluded that riparian communities attach considerable economic value to the river system. In order to achieve sustainable management of the wetland, there is need to increase awareness through radios, trainings, extension services and there is a possibility of raising funds from these communities for continued wetland protection


Lipoxygenases are a family of cytosolic, peripheral membrane enzymes, which catalyze the hydroperoxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids and are implicated in the pathogenesis of major human diseases. Over the years, a substantial number of scientific reports have introduced inhibitors active against one or another subtype of the enzyme, but the selectivity issue has proved to be a major challenge for drug design. In the present work, we assembled a dataset of 317 structurally diverse molecules hitherto reported as active against 15S-LOX1, 12S-LOX1, and 15S-LOX2 and identified, using supervised machine learning, a set of structural descriptors responsible for the binding selectivity toward the enzyme 15S-LOX1. We subsequently incorporated these descriptors in the training of QSAR models for LOX1 activity and selectivity. The best performing classifiers are two stacked models that include an ensemble of support vector machine, random forest, and k-nearest neighbor algorithms. These models not only can predict LOX1 activity/inactivity but also can discriminate with high accuracy between molecules that exhibit selective activity toward either one of the isozymes 15S-LOX1 and 12S-LOX1.


The objective of this work was to characterize entire flowers of the feijoa ( Acca sellowiana ) genotypes 'Alcântara', 'Helena', 'Mattos', 'Nonante', and the accession 2316 for dry matter, total antioxidant activity (TAA), and the contents of soluble solids, ascorbic acid, total anthocyanins, total flavonoids, and total phenolic compounds (TPC), as well as for the petal surface areas and colors. The TAA was quantified by the ABTS and DPPH methods. Flowers of the accession 2316 and of the cultivars Alcântara and Helena showed the highest contents of anthocyanins and flavonoids, as well as the highest values of TPC and TAA. The feijoa genotypes cultivated in Southern Brazil show high contents of soluble solids and represent a natural source of antioxidants.


Different geographic routing protocols have different requirements on routing metric designs to ensure proper operation. Combining a wrong type of routing metric with a geographic routing protocol may produce unexpected results, such as geographic routing loops and unreachable nodes. In this paper, we propose a novel routing algebra system to investigate the compatibilities between routing metrics and three geographic routing protocols including greedy, face and combined-greedy- face routing. Four important algebraic properties, respectively named odd symmetry, transitivity, source independence and local minimum freeness, are defined in this algebra system. Based on these algebraic properties, the necessary and sufficient conditions for loop-free and delivery guaranteed routing are derived when greedy, face and combined-greedy-face routing serve as packet forwarding schemes or as path discovery algorithms respectively. Our work provides essential criterions for evaluating and designing geographic routing protocols.


Directionally solidified (DS) superalloys, which have elongated large grains, are used for gas-turbine blades. Since the grain size is not small enough in comparison with the crack size observed often in a real component, the inhomogeneous microstructure due to the aligned grains may strongly affect the crack propagation property. Center-cracked-plate specimens with three different orientations, TP0 with the parallel DS axis to the load, TP90T with the perpendicular DS axis to the load and the crack propagation direction, and TP90L with the perpendicular DS axis to the load and parallel to the crack propagation direction, are subjected to high-temperature (1143K) fatigue. The specimens after the tests show the transgranular cracking perpendicular to the load axis in TP0, intergranular one parallel to the DS axis in TP90L, and intergranular / transgranular one parallel to the DS axis in TP90T. The crack propagation rate da/dN shows a good correlation with effective stress intensity factor range Keff in each cases. However, the magnitude of da/dN at a same Keff in TP90L is relatively higher than that in TP0, and that in TP90T remarkably fluctuates. A microscopic observation of TP90T reveals that the high da/dN is caused by the intergranular cracking, while the low da/dN is observed on the transgranular cracking. A procedure for the prediction of crack propagation is proposed on the basis of the two types of cracking; transgranular and intergranular cracks perpendicular to the load axis. The validity of the proposed procedure is discussed by the comparison of tested and predicted results of crack propagation in a fatigue condition.


Hard cases of pronoun resolution have been used as a long-standing benchmark for commonsense reasoning. In the recent literature, pre-trained language models have been used to obtain state-of-the-art results on pronoun resolution. Overall, four categories of training and evaluation objectives have been introduced. The variety of training datasets and pre-trained language models used in these works makes it unclear whether the choice of training objective is critical. In this work, we make a fair comparison of the performance and seed-wise stability of four models that represent the four categories of objectives. Our experiments show that the objective of sequence ranking performs the best in-domain, while the objective of semantic similarity between candidates and pronoun performs the best out-of-domain. We also observe a seed-wise instability of the model using sequence ranking, which is not the case when the other objectives are used.


Proximity queries among circles could be effectively answered if the Delaunay graph for sets of circles could be computed in an efficient and exact way. In this paper, we first show a necessary and sufficient condition of connectivity of the Voronoi diagram of circles. Then, we show how the Delaunay graph of circles (the dual graph of the Voronoi diagram of circles) can be computed exactly, and in a much simpler way, by computing the eigenvalues of a two by two matrix.


The ability of cells of the immune system, in particular CD8+ cytotoxic T-cells and natural killer (NK) cells, to kill tumor cells in vivo is now being exploited in the clinic with the advent of immunotherapy. While these therapies are effective in a subset of patients the emergence of tumor resistance is now being observed in the clinic. Several studies have investigated tumour evasion from CD8+ cytotoxic T-cell directed killing; however, it is not known if the same mechanisms apply for the tumor cells to evade NK cells. For instance, one major pathway of CD8+ cytotoxic T-cell resistance is via alteration of the MHC class I antigen presentation pathway which could in theory allow the tumor cells to become more sensitive to NK cell mediated killing due to "loss of self." We have investigated tumor cell intrinsic NK cell resistance and sensitivity pathways using genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 loss of function in vitro screens. These screens have confirmed the essential role of cell adhesion via ICAM1 in enabling tumor cell killing by NK cells. We have also identified other novel pathways that could be manipulated to enhance tumor cell cytotoxicity and the development of alternative and/or additive therapeutic strategies in the clinic. Citation Format: Carmen Ballesteros Reviriego, Anneliese O. Speak, Gemma Turner, Vivek Iyer, Leopold Parts, David J. Adams. Identification of tumor cell intrinsic immune evasion mechanisms [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fourth CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; Sept 30-Oct 3, 2018; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2019;7(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B145.


Development has emerged as a major theme in the discourses of social sciences in r ecent times. Starting with Truman's and Rostow's concepts of economic growth, it has run into several phases assuming different intellectual hues in the post war period. Of late it has taken new forms like sustainable development and inclusive growth. The major thesis of the paper is that all these efforts have failed to make any significant dent in the crisis confronting the mainstream development. It is in this context that Gandhi's concept of development has come to attract attention of scholars and activists all over the world. This paper has tried to examine Gandhi's critique of development as an integral part of modern industrial civilization as well as adumbrate the features of a viable model of economic development which could be sustainable and enduring proposed by him.


Metabolic pathway alignment represents one of the most powerful tools for comparative analysis of metabolism. It involves recognition of metabolites common to a set of functionally-related metabolic pathways, interpretation of biological evolution processes and determination of alternative metabolic pathways. Moreover, it is of assistance in function prediction and metabolism modeling. Although research on genomic sequence alignment is extensive, the problem of aligning metabolic pathways has received less attention. We are motivated to develop an algorithm of metabolic pathway alignment to reveal the similarities between metabolic pathways. A new definition of the metabolic pathway is introduced. The algorithm has been implemented into the PathAligner system; its web-based interface is available at http://bibiserv.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/pathaligner/.


One of the most profoundly debated issues in recent legal philosophy has been that of the ways in which to account for the phenomenon of disagreement among legal practitioners and among jurists when it comes to elucidating the content of the law and to, therefore, finding legal answers to particular controversies. Deriving from Ronald Dworkin's work, this issue has become the instrument for an intense critical re-examination of legal positivism and has consequently spurred several jurisprudential approaches trying to account for the phenomenon in a way consistent with the central positivistic tenets. One of those approaches, in particular, intends to face the challenge by linking legal positivism to an expressivist analysis of first order legal discourse; an analysis analogous to that proposed for moral discourse by important authors in contemporary metaethics. In this paper I introduce the main features of this jurisprudential approach, inquiring into both some of its virtues and of its major difficulties.


This study examines the comparison between English Department students' emotional intelligence (EQ), their self-esteem and their academic achievement. Twenty-two students participated in the research by answering EQ test and two Self-Esteem questionnaires. The result shows that there is no relation between students' GPA and their self-esteem and EQ. This means that academic ability does not correspond to social skills. Though most students have average EQ and self-esteem, one student has High EQ, High Self-esteem and a 2.95 GPA (out of 4).


The 2′,5′-oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS) and its downstream effector RNase L play important roles in host defense against virus infection. Oas1b, one of the eight Oas1 genes in the mouse genome, has been identified as a murine flavivirus-resistance gene. Four genes, OAS1, OAS2, OAS3, and OAS-like (OASL), have been identified in the human OAS gene family, and 10 isoforms, including OAS1 (p42, p44, p46, p48, and p52), OAS2 (p69 and p71), OAS3 (p100), and OASL (p30 and p59) can be generated by alternative splicing. In this study, we determined the role of the human OAS/RNase L pathway in host defense against dengue virus (DEN) infection and assessed the antiviral potential of each isoform in the human OAS family. DEN replication was reduced by overexpression and enhanced by knockdown of RNase L expression, indicating a protective role for RNase L against DEN replication in human cells. The human OAS1 p42, OAS1 p46, and OAS3 p100, but not the other OAS isoforms, blocked DEN replication via an RNase L-dependent mechanism. Furthermore, the anti-DEN activities of these three OAS isoforms correlated with their ability to trigger RNase L activation in DEN-infected cells. Thus, OAS1 p42/p46 and OAS3 p100 are likely to contribute to host defense against DEN infection and play a role in determining the outcomes of DEN disease severity.


OBJECTIVE
Residential treatment for severe eating disorders (EDs) is associated with primarily positive outcomes. However, less is known about the moderators of treatment response. Comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis is associated with increased ED symptom severity. This study investigated whether PTSD moderated outcomes of transdiagnostic, residential ED treatment based upon the Unified Protocol.

METHOD
Female patients (N = 1055) in residential ED treatment completed a clinical interview to assess PTSD diagnosis and self-reported ED, depression, and anxiety symptoms, anxiety sensitivity, experiential avoidance, and mindfulness. We tested whether PTSD moderated trajectories of symptom change from treatment admission to discharge and 6-month follow-up using multilevel models.

RESULTS
PTSD moderated change in ED symptoms, depression severity, and experiential avoidance. Patients with PTSD showed steeper symptom improvements from admission to discharge. However, PTSD was associated with greater symptom recurrence after residential treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with comorbid PTSD demonstrated more improvement during residential treatment, but experienced steeper posttreatment symptom recurrence.


This research examines the ways in which dominant boundaries and identities are (re)defined at the intersection of class, gender, race and nation in the context of the 'cleanups' that took place in the aftermath of the London riots in August 2011. Through a semiotic and discursive analysis of media photographs of the Hackney and Battersea cleanups, I explore how some bodies are allowed to belong in space while others are made 'out of place'. In reading the photographs as a text, I pay particular attention to the performativity of the cleaning body and its relationship with brooms, gloves and other technologies of cleaning. Influenced by Anne McClintock's (1995) analysis of 19th Century cleaning in Imperial Leather, I explore the contemporary relevance of her work in 21st Century London and in the context of gentrification. I also use Sara Ahmed's (2004) work on the politics of emotions to explore the way in which fear and love allow bodies to cohere in opposition to the perceived threat of undesirable 'others'.


As the determination of density fluctuations becomes more precise with larger surveys, it becomes more important to account for the increased covariance due to the non-linearity of the field. Here I have focussed on the galaxy density, with analytical prediction of the non-Gaussianity using the halo model coupled with standard perturbation theory in real space. I carried out an exact and exhaustive derivation of all tree-level terms of the non-Gaussian covariance of the galaxyCℓ, with the computation developed up to the third order in perturbation theory and local halo bias, including the non-local tidal tensor effect. A diagrammatic method was used to derive the involved galaxy 3D trispectra, including shot-noise contributions. The projection to the angular covariance was derived in all trispectra cases with and without Limber's approximation, with the formulae being of potential interest for other observables than galaxies. The effect of subtracting shot-noise from the measured spectrum is also discussed, and does simplify the covariance, though some non-Gaussian shot-noise terms still remain. I make the link between this complete derivation and partial terms which have been used previously in the literature, including super-sample covariance (SSC). I uncover a wealth of additional terms which were not previously considered, including a whole new class which I dub braiding terms as it contains multipole-mixing kernels. The importance of all these new terms is discussed with analytical arguments. I find that they become comparable to, if not bigger than, SSC if the survey is large or deep enough to probe scales comparable with the matter-radiation equalitykeq. A short self-contained summary of the equations is provided in Sect. 9 for the busy reader, ready to be implemented numerically for analysis of current and future galaxy surveys.


Helicobacter pylori has been shown to produce a protein that inhibits acid secretion from parietal cells. We have examined other non-human-infecting Helicobacter species for this property by measuring the uptake of [14C]aminopyrine into rabbit parietal cells as an indirect assessment of acid secretion. Helicobacter felis and an isolate from a rhesus monkey were shown to inhibit acid secretion. Isolates of Helicobacter mustelae gave variable responses. Whole bacteria and cell-free sonicates impaired the uptake of [14C]aminopyrine. We also tested other bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Klebsiella oxytoca, and Campylobacter jejuni. As whole organisms, these control bacteria had little effect on acid secretion, but sonicates caused pronounced inhibition that was partially heat labile. Pronase treatment of H. pylori destroyed its inhibitory effect. These results suggest that most Helicobacter species, but not all isolates, are able to inhibit acid secretion from rabbit parietal cells. This property may be a factor in the establishment of long-term infection by these species.


Presentation held at The International Conference of Multiphysics (arranged by The International Conference of Multiphysics) in Zurich, 08.12.16 - 09.12.16.


ABSTRACT The advent of on-demand mobility systems is expected to have a tremendous potential on the wellness of transportation users in cities. Yet such positive effects are reached when the systems under consideration enable seamless integration between data sources that involve a high number of transportation actors. In this paper we report on the effort of designing and deploying an integrated system, including algorithms and platforms, that can operate in cities, in an Internet of Things (IoT)-aware fashion. The system was evaluated by enabling/disabling the IoT components of the system, highlighting the necessity of real-time data integration for efficient mobility services.


With global terrorism a seemingly daily threat, the twenty-first century is permeated with violence and in search of some way to better understand the world and its different religions and politics. In recent decades, the literary world has shifted to a similar focus, producing new works and reexamining old ones to aid in forming a vision relevant to such a violent world. In Visionary Milton: Essays on Prophecy and Violence, distinguished Milton scholars are brought together in dialogue to discuss John Milton's focus on prophecy and violence in his work and how these themes add to an understanding of Milton as a visionary. The collection begins with a fresh analysis of the visionary mode of narrative in the early modern period as seen in both biblical and imaginative literature and sets the groundwork for an examination of Milton's poetry, prose, and biography. The themes of prophecy and violence develop throughout these essays as an overall context in Milton's life, as an important principle in such works as Paradise Regained, and as a mode for an extended analysis of Restoration politics as they figure in Milton's poetry. Visionary Milton extends the literary discussion of Milton's work into a larger geopolitical area. The collection is important not only for those interested in Milton, but also for historians, political scientists, and theologians.


Background: The management of breakthrough pain (BTP) in cancer patients is a challenge. It is clinically useful to evaluate the effectiveness of rapid-onset opioid at a starting dose in proportional to the background opioid regimen. This open-label, multicenter, noncomparative study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of proportional doses of fentanyl buccal soluble film (FBSF) in patients with breakthrough cancer pain. Methods: Thirty patients aged 20 to 70, experiencing 1 to 3 BTP per day, receiving regimens equivalent to 60 to 360 mg/day of oral morphine or 25 to 150 &mgr;g/h of transdermal fentanyl ≥1 week, were prospectively recruited. FBSF was administered proportionally based on their current opioid regimen for baseline pain. The percentage of patients requiring dose titration was evaluated. For each BTP episode, changes in pain intensity at 30 minutes (PID30) after dosing, patient's satisfaction, the percentage of episodes requiring rescue medication, and adverse events (AEs) were recorded. Results: The percentage of patients who required dose titration was 21.4% (6/28) and 12.0% (3/25) in the full analysis set and per-protocol populations, respectively. The average PID30 was 3.9, and a pain score ⩽3 was achieved in 95.1% of the events. Eight out of 367 (2.2%) BTP episodes needed rescue medication. The majority of subjects (75.8%) rated their experience of pain management as good to excellent. A total of 6 drug-related AEs were reported by 3 (10.7%) patients in the safety population. Conclusions: FBSF dose in proportional to the regimen of opioid for baseline pain management is efficacious and well tolerated for the treatment of cancer patients with BTP.


In this article, we will bring biblical, theological, and philosophical perspectives on radical love into creative dialogue with critical pedagogy.  The biblical narratives of the book of Ruth and the Parable of the "Good" Samaritan contain paradigms for a radical kind of love that seeks the liberation and well-being of others.  These insights on love carry epistemological and methodological implications for critical pedagogy.  Such implications can be identified by placing these insights about love in conversation with Paulo Feire's "pedagogy of love," as discussed by Antonia Darder.  Also, bell hooks' cultural critiques and emphasis on engaged pedagogy can illumine other implications that relate to cultural experiences.  The ultimate goal is to illustrate how love, rooted in biblical and philosophical foundations, motivates cross-cultural and interfaith engagement, and encourages emancipatory action.


The majority of plant pathogens comprising about 60% of the total are belonging to a group of eukaryotic microorganisms, commonly known as FUNGI although this name obviously covers a number of organisms that are not fungi in a strict sense (1(. Yet, all these plant pathogens, having different systematic positions within the livings, are of significance as far as agricultural crop production is concerned.Mycologists in the past were primarily interested in identifying fungal diseases, describing the fungi, studying their life cycle in relation to environment and looking for effective control measures. A big step forward was when investigations expanded toward the physiology of plant diseases and disease resistance. Meanwhile fungal genetics has developed providing a better understanding of plant-fungus relations. Recently, with the introduction of molecular techniques, new approaches of research, such as molecular taxonomy and molecular genetics have been established and the molecular methods were applied ...


Abstract Background: Prophylactic cholecystectomy has been proposed as a concomitant procedure during upper gastrointestinal surgery. This study evaluates the safety and the need of concurrent cholecystectomy during esophagectomy for cancer. Methods: All consecutive esophagectomies for esophageal cancer at the Center for Esophageal Diseases in Padova (Italy) between 1992 and 2011 were included. The safety of concurrent cholecystectomy was evaluated by surgical outcomes (length of stay, postoperative mortality and perioperative complications). The need for concurrent cholecystectomy was evaluated by occurrence of biliary duct stones and of cholelithiasis/cholecystitis after esophagectomy. Results: Cholecystectomy was performed during 67 out of 1087 esophagectomies (6.2%). Cirrhosis or chronic liver disease was associated with receiving cholecystectomy during esophagectomy (OR: 1.99, 95%C.I. 1.10–3.56). Patients receiving and those not receiving cholecystectomy showed similar length of stay (median 14 days, p = .87), postoperative mortality (3.0% vs. 2.5%, p = .68), intraoperative complication (4.5% vs. 7.1%, p = .62), early complications (52.2% vs. 44.6%, p = .25) and late complications (20.9% vs. 24.8%, p = .56). Cholelithiasis/cholecystitis after esophagectomy occurred in 61 (6.1%) patients, with only four requiring cholecystectomy during follow-up. The biliary stone occurrence was nil. Only pathologic stage III-IV (OR: 2.17, 95%C.I. 1.19–3.96) was associated with cholelithiasis/cholecystitis after esophagectomy. Conclusion: Routine prophylactic cholecystectomy during esophagectomy could be safe but unnecessary.


Fish farming (aquaculture) has grown rapidly in Myanmar over the last two decades and plays an increasingly important role in national fish supply, but its technical and economic characteristics have been little studied. Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy (FSP) has conducted the first statistically representative survey of fish farms conducted in Myanmar: the Myanmar Aquaculture- Agriculture Survey (MAAS). Features analyzed include: farm productivity and profitability; farm size; production cycle duration; use of feed, seed and other production inputs; demand for labor; harvesting and marketing behaviors; technological change; the economic and social characteristics of fish farming households; and land access and tenure.


PURPOSE
To examine the impact of rurality on 30-day preventable readmission, and the illness severity and risk of mortality for 30-day preventable readmissions.

METHODS
We analyzed heart failure Medicare beneficiaries who received home health services for postacute care after hospital discharge in 2009. The study was a cross-sectional design with the unit of analysis as the home health episode for postacute care. Data sources included the following: Medicare Beneficiary Summary File, Medicare Provider Analysis Review, Outcome Assessment Information Set, Home Health Agency Research Identifiable File, and Area Health Resources File. The dependent variables were 30-day preventable readmission, and the extreme/major level of illness severity and of risk of mortality for a 30-day preventable readmission. The key independent variable was rurality defined as remote rural, adjacent rural, and micropolitan areas, with urban areas in the reference group.

FINDINGS
Home health beneficiaries in remote rural areas had 27% lower 30-day preventable readmission than those in urban areas. Home health beneficiaries in adjacent rural areas were 33% less likely to have high illness severity at readmission due to a preventable condition than those in urban areas.

CONCLUSIONS
Geographical location affects preventable readmission and illness severity of preventable readmission. Patients' geographic location along with patients' risk factors should be taken into consideration in the risk adjustment model for the financial incentive program that penalizes home health agencies with high preventable readmissions.


Producing vigorous seedlings and transplanting them at the appropriate age are the most important factors for obtaining
high yield in rice (Oryza sativa L.) paddy production. The impact of seeding densities, N, and seedling age was evaluated in
this experiment after transplanting 10, 20, 30 and 40-d old seedlings raised by using different seeding rates (high and low)
and N conditions (with and without) in the 2008 and 2009 rice growing seasons. The study revealed that 10-d-old nursery
seedlings, irrespective of seeding densities and fertilizer application, showed higher yields and yield attributes (productive
tillers, plant height, 1000-grain weight, and straw yield), while at later stages significant interaction was observed with
nursery management. Transplanting of 20-d older fertile seedlings grown with low seeding density at nursery-bed, resulted
in a higher number of productive tillers m-2 (233.3, 227.3), straw yield (11.1, 10.7 t ha-1), and final yield (3.6, 3.4 t ha-1)
in both years, 2008 and 2009, respectively. Yield and yield attributes were significantly reduced by transplanting older
seedlings grown at high seeding density and without N application at nursery-bed. Minimum productive tillers (165.7, 133),
straw yield (8.7, 8.1 t ha-1) and paddy yield (2.0, 1.8 t ha-1) were recorded with transplanting 40-d older seedlings grown
at high seeding density and without N application. These findings support the use of young seedling in a system of rice
intensification and illustrate that by making a minor additional investment to raise healthy and vigorous seedlings in nursery
seed-bed, farmers can improve yields.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a good insight into the use of fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (fuzzy AHP) approach that is a multi-criteria decision-making methodology in evaluating the benefits of information-sharing decision problems. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, the integration of AHP with the fuzzy synthetic extent analysis method (fuzzy AHP) is proposed in evaluating the benefits of information-sharing decision problems as a framework to guide managers. Findings – Findings demonstrate that the customer requirement and operational information alternatives are the preferred key decisions, which all supply chain partners might agree to share with one another. Further, it can also be concluded that the planning and financial information alternatives have almost the same importance. Research limitations/implications – Fuzzy AHP is a highly complex methodology and requires more numerical calculations in assessing composite priorities than the traditional AHP and hence it increases the effort. In addition, fuzzy methodology could be extended with the other multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods such as Analytical Network Process (ANP), TOPSIS, ELECTRE and DEA techniques in solving such a problem. Originality/value – There is a lack of research in the literature to deal directly with the uncertainty of human judgements in evaluating the benefits of various information-sharing decisions in a supply chain. Therefore, fuzzy AHP is an appropriate methodology to select the various types of information and has the ability to be used as a decision-making analysis tool since it handles uncertain and imprecise data. In addition, the paper is especially of interest to managers as they make decisions on which types of information they should share with their supply chain partners.


This paper investigates the impact of word-based RNN language models (RNN-LMs) on the performance of end-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR). In our prior work, we have proposed a multi-level LM, in which character-based and word-based RNN-LMs are combined in hybrid CTC/attention-based ASR. Although this multi-level approach achieves significant error reduction in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) task, two different LMs need to be trained and used for decoding, which increase the computational cost and memory usage. In this paper, we further propose a novel word-based RNN-LM, which allows us to decode with only the word-based LM, where it provides look-ahead word probabilities to predict next characters instead of the character-based LM, leading competitive accuracy with less computation compared to the multi-level LM. We demonstrate the efficacy of the word-based RNN-LMs using a larger corpus, LibriSpeech, in addition to WSJ we used in the prior work. Furthermore, we show that the proposed model achieves 5.1 %WER for WSJ Eval'92 test set when the vocabulary size is increased, which is the best WER reported for end-to-end ASR systems on this benchmark.


Bacterial enzymatic hydrolysis of high molecular weight organic matter is the rate‐limiting step in the bacterially mediated carbon cycling in the global ocean. Despite the importance of this process, only bulk measurements of these hydrolytic activities are available, and the dynamics and diversity of the ectohydrolases involved in the cleavage of high molecular weight organic matter are poorly understood. In this study we monitored the dynamics of bacterial β‐glucosidase diversity during the wax and wane of a coastal phytoplankton bloom using a newly developed capillary electrophoretic assay. Up to eight different β‐glucosidases were detected in a single sample and 11 over the whole study period, revealing a previously unnoticed β‐glucosidase diversity. A close link was found between the temporal succession ofβ‐glucosidase diversity and bacterioplankton species richness as determined by terminal‐restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. This indicates that the regulation of the β‐glucosidase activity and diversity was driven by shifts in the bacterial community structure rather than by simple induction of enzyme expression within a stable bacterioplankton community.


This work presents the preliminary results of geochemistry of mafic intrusions (diabase dykes) and their relationship with antimony mineralization in the Central-Iberian Zone (Variscan Belt). Two different areas were studied, the Almadén (Al) and the San Antonio (SA) areas.

Both macroscopic and microscopic observations show that mafic dykes are mainly composed by clinopyroxene, plagioclase, Fe-Ti oxides and to a lesser extent of calcite and sulphides (pyrite, chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite). These samples are altered presenting chlorite and epidote as alteration minerals. Pyroxene is sometimes altered to amphibole.

Whole rock geochemistry analyses from 20 samples show a difference between SA and Al dolerites. The first fall into the classical basalt field whereas the second fall into the alkali basalt field according to the Zr/TiO2 vs Nb/Y diagram. The tectonic setting for the SA samples coincides with the volcanic arc setting whereas the samples from Al fall into the within plate magmatism.

Primitive mantle normalized diagrams display high negative anomalies in Rb, K, with small negative anomalies in Nb and Ta for both SA and Al. High positive anomalies for both areas in Cs, Pb (especially for SA) and Li accompanied by small positive anomalies in P and Ti can be observed. Dolerites from Al are more enriched in Ba, Th, U, Nb, Ba, La, Ce, Sr, P, Nd, Sn, Zr, Hf than SA. All samples are depleted in HREE and enriched in LREE. Anomalies in Rb, Nb, Ta and Li may be related with crustal contamination. Pb anomalies could be associated with assimilation of country rocks, especially marine sediments, this anomaly is also related to subduction processes. Positive P and Ti anomalies of some samples is due to the apatite and ilmenite enrichment respectively. Negative anomalies in K could be associated with presence of phlogopite in the source. Rare Earth Elements contents are compatible with the presence of garnet in the source and low degree of partial melting, this is consistent with the correlation between La/Sm vs Gd/Yb and La/Sm vs Rb. Trace element ratios such as Th/La (0,10 for SA) and (0,09 for Al) suggest an enriched mantle source.

Some of these mafic intrusions were collected near antimony mineralization whereas the other are located at distance but in the same swarm of mafic dykes. A spatial and genetic link between Sb mineralization and mafic magmatism has been proposed in other parts of the Variscan Belt, especially in the Armorican Massif.

The source of these Sb mineralization could be related to an enriched mantle with crustal contamination. The geochemical link between mafic magmatism and Sb mineralization and their source in the Central Iberian Zone is still a matter of study.

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the ANR (ANR-19-MIN2-0002-01), the AEI (MICIU/AEI/REF.: PCI2019-103779) and author’s institutions in the framework of the ERA-MIN2 AUREOLE project, as well as by Project SBPLY/17/180501/000273, Consejería de Educación, Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain.


Abstract Objective: Satisfaction with amplification in daily life (SADL) may quantify satisfaction with hearing aids. We translated and validated a Chinese version of SADL (CSADL). Design: The SADL was translated from English to Mandarin Chinese by two bilingual physicians. The CSADL was administered to hearing-aid users and tested for reliability and validity. Study sample: There were 155 hearing-aid users who completed the CSADL prospectively, and 39 subjects were retested after 4 to 6 weeks for test-retest reliability. Results: The CSADL had good internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.63 to 0.92), within survey reliability (r = 0.54 to 0.69; P ≤ .05), and test-retest reliability (r = 0.93 to 0.98; P ≤ .05). The CSADL dimensions correlated well with worse-ear speech discrimination score (P ≤ .05). The CSADL global score significantly correlated with the general health (r = 0.236; P ≤ .05), vitality (r = 0.162; P ≤ .05), social functioning (r = 0.190; P ≤ .05), and mental health (r = 0.224; P ≤ .05) subscales of the Mandarin Chinese Taiwan version of the medical outcome 36-item short-form health survey. Conclusions: The CSADL is a valid and reliable questionnaire to evaluate satisfaction among Chinese hearing-aid users.


Despite the importance of nutrient availability in determining ecosystem structure and function, it is difficult to quantify in an absolute sense because of the complexity of nutrient cycles and methodological limitations. Others have compared nutrient availability indices for upland soils, but few comparative studies have been done in organic soils. Objectives of this study were, (i) to determine if N and P availability change in a predictable manner across an ombrotrophicminerotrophic gradient in 16 wetlands in northern Minnesota, and (ii) to compare various laboratory and field indices of soil nutrient availability in a diverse group of organic soils. Ombrotrophic wetlands receive only atmospheric inputs of ions, while minerotrophic wetlands also receive groundwater or overland water inputs. We compared the following nutrient availability indices: 2- and 59-wk laboratory mineralization potentials, labile P and N pools determined from a kinetic mineralization model, total and extractable soil N and P pools, plant N and P concentrations, and H-OH and HCO 3 - charged resins. Most indices indicated that N availability increases along the ombrotrophic-minerotrophic gradient, and correlations among indices were generally good, suggesting that they can be used somewhat interchangeably. Resins indicated a predominance of NO 3 -N availability during the growing season and NH 4 -N availability during the winter, and most indices indicated an increasing importance of nitrification in more minerotrophic wetlands. In contrast, P indices gave contrasting results across the gradient and were generally poorly correlated; however, the majority of the methods suggested that P availability is higher in minerotrophic swamp forests or beaver meadows, and that P availability is low in bogs and fens. We suggest that current methods of determining P availability may be inadequate in highly diverse organic soils. Plant nutrient concentrations did not show clear relationships with soil nutrient indices, particularly for N, which probably reflects the complicated relationship between soil nutrient availability and plant response in natural wetlands.